Artamus minor
Silhouette: Sheatherius · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~30%
The little woodswallow (Artamus minor), is a bird patchily distributed over much of mainland Australia, avoiding only the driest deserts and the area within about 300 kilometres of the southern coastline, and showing a preference for rugged terrain around inland ranges.
As its name suggests, at 12 to 14 cm in length it is the smallest of the woodswallows. It is dark, smoky brown overall, with deep gunmetal grey wings and a black-tipped, blue-tinged bill. Like other woodswallows, groups cluster huddled close together on high, dead branches to rest or sleep. Typical group sizes are modest but it is not uncommon to have hundreds gather together at a roost site.
Little woodswallows soar effortlessly above the treetops or along cliff faces when hunting flying insects—being small, they are easily confused with martins. The nest is a rudimentary affair, placed in a tree hollow or similar space, and made of twigs and other vegetable matter. Breeding takes place from August to January, or after rain. Three eggs are laid and the young leave the nest when barely able to fly, taking up a perch on a nearby tree and calling incessantly for the food the parents bring them. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 2 | Kakadu National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 3 | Nitmiluk National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 4 | Litchfield National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 5 | Cape Range | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 6 | Flinders Ranges National Park | 🇦🇺 Australia |
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Little Woodswallow sighting in Cape Range on a given day, based on 13 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 73rd most-seen of the 84 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
May, July and November–December
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Little Woodswallow in Cape Range on a given day, against under 5% in January, March–April, June and August–October, the lowest months. February has too few records to rate.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Little Woodswallow sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
5th of 6
Of the 6 parks where we can rate Little Woodswallow sightings, Cape Range ranks 5th at under 5%. The best odds are in Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park (Australia, about 40%), Kakadu National Park (Australia, about 10%) and Nitmiluk National Park (Australia, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Little Woodswallow is recorded against all the birds logged in Cape Range (13 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
